All Good Things Ep 11: Full Immersion
by Jurnee Jakes
Summary: Glad to get back to traditional world saving at a Secret Lab, Wade brings a mission to Kim and Ron that is anything but ordinary as Ron discovers he has some essential skills. That of a gamer! - A Reboot crossover
1. Prologue

_Extended Disclaimer:_ Reboot, a Canadian CGI-animated action-adventure television series that originally aired from 1994 to 2001, is a computer system inhabited by **binomes **and **sprites** who go about their business, trying to keep everything running smoothly. Unfortunately, they live under the constant threat of the **User**, who's games wreck havoc if left unchecked, and the viruses **Hexadecimal** and **Megabyte**, who seek to infect the system core with the own malicious code. That's where the Guardian, **Bob**, comes in. Armed with the versatile key-tool "Glitch", he tries his best to keep citizens safe, upholding his mandate "To Mend and Defend". All characters associated with Reboot are property of Rainmaker. More information about Reboot can be found at en./wiki/ReBoot

This story is also meant as a tribute to Tony Jay, a voice actor that passed away in 2006. He was the voice of the primary villain of Reboot, Megabyte, as well as many other animated characters. More information about Tony Jay and his work can be found at en./wiki/TonyJay

* * *

**Kim Possible**

**Full Immersion**

_Prologue_

"There's no way she could get out of that!" Dr. Drakken said assuredly as he stood with his fists on his hips, watching as a massive digital timer counted down. "And in one minute, this will all be over and we can go back to our regular lives."

"When is it ever that easy?" Shego asked from her place beside the DEACTIVATE button that would shut down the machine. "What is this thing, anyway?"

Drakken looked down at a small device on his wrist that began feeding him information. "It's a Hyper Centrifugal Engine, designed to increase or decrease the planet's rotation in order to fluctuate the gravity of the world as I see fit." Drakken explained.

"Which is good for...?" Shego asked. Drakken shrugged.

"Nothin' after we get through with you!" said Ron Stoppable. Drakken and Shego spun to see the blonde, freckle faced boy next to the entrance to the lair. He was making various monkey sounds as he flailed his arms and legs in a comical attempt at a martial arts kata.

"It's... it's..." Drakken shouted, pointing. "That... guy! Attack!" A mass of both skinny and rotund henchmen charged at him, armed with electrically charged staves.

"Wait, where's..." Shego began before being knocked to the floor from behind.

"Kim Possible!" Drakken shouted, spinning again. "How did you..."

"Sharks, guard dogs, and shredder bots?" the red haired teen snorted. "Running out of ideas, Drakken?"

Shego lunged forward, her hands already blazing green. Kim leaped up, narrowly dodged the swipe, and landed on her feet to face Shego.

"Thirty seconds left." Drakken smiled. He gave a wry smile as Ron Stoppable ran past him, screaming and flailing his arms as his henchmen followed after. He watched as Shego kept Kim Possible on the move and away from the large DEACTIVATE button. "This one's in the fold... wha?!"

Drakken's mouth hung open as a small pink, sausage-like rodent scurried nearly unnoticed across the floor toward the button. "Go Rufus!" Ron and Kim shouted together.

Shego tossed Kim off and closed one eye, taking aim at the mole rat with one finger. Rufus squeaked as the line of green plasma exploded beneath his feet. Drakken reached the console, making a desperate grab for the rodent, first with one hand, then with the other. Rufus kept squirming out like a bar of soap.

"Ten seconds..." the computerized voice announced.

Rufus dived onto the DEACTIVATE button, but struck the floor of a cage that closed around him. It had a long shaft that was attached to the device on Drakken's wrist. "I don't think so." Drakken stated cooly.

In one smooth motion, Kim took aim with her grapple and fired. The hook attached itself to the shaft that spanned the distance between the button and Drakken's wrist. "Ron! Oof!" she cried, as she was tackled by Shego, pulling Drakken and a caged Rufus with her.

"On it, KP!" Ron shouted back, the henchmen still chasing after him.

"Five seconds..."

Drakken picked himself up off the floor and set his jaw with determination. He detached the cage with the mole rat from device on his wrist and then pointed it at Ron.

"Two seconds..."

Ron grinned, putting his hands together in preparation to do a haymaker on the button. Suddenly, his legs refused to move and he slid to a stop. He looked back to find that his pants were around his ankles, his belt severed in two, and an odd looking pair of scissors were retracting back into the device on Drakken's wrist.

"One second..."

"Maybe next time, User." Drakken said with a grin.

"Game Over." announced a female voice as the lair dematerialized.

The purple, pulsing game cube rose into the sky and the blue skinned guardian stepped over to his green skinned companion. "Need a hand, Dot?" he asked.

Dot matrix looked up from where she had just been wrestling with the Kim Possible avatar and smiled. "Nice work, Bob. These games are getting tougher." she replied, taking his hand and pulling herself to her feet.

"Nothing Mainframe can't handle." Bob said with a smile. He looked around at the crowd of ones and zeros. "Everyone okay?"

"Yeah, but I think a zero tripped and fell!" said a binome, laughing.

"Come on, Bob. I'll treat you to an energy shake." Dot said with a smile.

Bob thought back to the game for a moment as they walked away. "Ever think of compiling your hair out, Dot?"

Dot looked at her friend sideways. "No." she stated. "Though I will miss the outfit..."

* * *

I come from outside the Net.

I've come through systems, peoples, and cities...

To this place:

Mainframe.

My name:

Kim Possible.

I can do anything...

To defend my friends.

Their hopes, and dreams.

To defend them from... their enemies.

They say there are people inside the computer,

Living their lives like we do in the real world.

No one knows for sure, but I intend to find out.

REBOOT!


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

Kim Possible was surrounded by paper and books as she sat at her computer desk in the apartment she shared with Ron Stoppable. She leaned back in the desk chair, her legs stretched out and perched on the back of the couch. Her new Psychology Professor still pushed hard for assignments, but at least Mrs. Newman didn't seem to want to single her out as a spoiled celebrity, or use her and Ron as batteries in an alien robot army.

As the thought of her old Psych professor came back to her, Kim couldn't help but be reminded of the weeks between then and now. A lot had happened in a month since Professor Justin Credible had separated her consciousness from her body. He had tried to bait Ron into powering an army of Lorwardian warbots for a ghostly Warhok and Warmonga.

She bit down on the end of her pen in thought, looking over at a set of pictures on her desk. One was of herself in her graduation gown with her parents and little brothers. The next was of her Nana and herself from the last Christmas shortly after her family had discovered that her and Ron had been living together.

Kim smiled fondly at her Nana's memory. She missed her terribly since the senior Kimberly J. Possible had passed away, but frowned as the circumstances around her death came flooding back to her. She had so desperately wanted to save her own grandmother that she had run blindly into danger. She wound up becoming an evil creature of hate that had come within a hairs breadth of destroying Ron, her cousin Joss, and the Director of Global Justice, as well as nearly plunging the world into darkness.

Kim parted her feet to watch Ron as he feverishly played his Z-Boy game, the scars from her bite that fateful day still lingering on his neck. When Kate Pederson, a descendant of Kim's great, great Aunt Miriam Possible, and a member of the Canadian Spy Agency, had offered Ron a free trip on a houseboat on a gorgeous lake, Kim thought they might actually get some time alone to talk about some of the things that had been said. Little did she know, Ron had invited many of their friends from High School along as well.

For the most parts, the group had made the best of the trip, despite various setbacks such as weather and technical difficulties that had left all nine of them stuck in the confines of the boat. Kim turned her attention back to the third picture on her desk of the entire group of friends on the last day of the trip. Despite her best attempts at calming Ron, the picture still seemed to creep him out, making him uncomfortable.

She stared at the picture for a long moment, though primarily her friend, Monique. Kim couldn't help worrying about her best friend from High School. They had a fight halfway through the trip and from then on, Monique had been different, yet familiar. Kim narrowed her eyes at the image of Monique Watson. The way one hand was placed on her hip, the way she stood with her weight positioned more on one leg than the other. The cruel smirk she seemed to be wearing...

"Aw man!"

Ron's outcry distracted Kim from her thoughts. "Time for a break?" she asked, a hopeful smile on her face.

Ron frowned at the television before him and looked down at his gaming partner. Rufus crossed his arms and shook his head, refusing to go on in the game. "Sure, KP. You want a movie or something?" he asked, looking at her from the corner of his eye.

"Actually, I was kinda hoping we could talk." Kim said, moving her paper and research material from her lap to her desk. "About the last few..."

Beep Beep Beepbeep

Kim sighed, brushing pages away to reveal her strap on Kimmunicator that she had placed on the desk to give her wrist a chance to relax. There was a relieved smile tugging at Ron's lips; a tell tale sign that he had just been saved by the beeper. "Go, Wade."

"Kim, you're not going to believe this!" Wade exclaimed.

"Walter?" she asked, dryly.

"Nope."

"Bonnie?"

"Nope."

"A crazed professor bent on destroying all life as we know it?"

"Now you're not even trying..."

"Well, Ron, Rufus, and I are all here, so it must be something new." Kim surmised with a smile.

"Better!" Wade grinned. "There's a secret lab that needs your help!"

Whereas most people would cringe at the concept of going into danger of facing an unknown super villain bent on world conquest, the thought of some action immediately released some tension and brought a grin to Kim's face. "Spankin', Wade. Got coordinates?"

"Even better! I've got you a free ride." Wade smiled.

"Ah..." Ron said with a whimsical smile. "Nostalgia..."

* * *

"Thanks again for bringing us to the Mainframe Corporation, Malcolm." Kim said. She had seen Malcolm Nevius only once or twice since he had tried taking over the online world of Everlot and trapping Ron and Zita Flores in the game with him.

"Don't mention it, Kim. After you and Ron showed me that there's more to life than playing online video games, I went to college, got a degree, and went to work with my dad."

"Doesn't your dad..." Ron began.

"Make video games? Yeah!" Malcolm replied. "Our new system is going to blow the Z-Boy out of the water when we perfect it."

"So did someone steal your system?" Kim asked, thinking back to Drakken's plot to build a robot warrior out of Nakasumi-san's automated toy factory.

"Not quite." Malcolm said cryptically. The Lear-Jet that they were riding in landed perfectly at a private airstrip and stopped on a pad that slowly began to descend into the Earth. "We think that someone has installed a virus in our system."

Kim and Ron looked at each other and shrugged. "So what do you need us for?" Kim asked. "This really sounds more like a Wade thing."

Malcolm led the couple and the Naked Mole Rat through a series of high security blast doors before they entered a small room full of comfortable looking chairs. Each one had an arm that reached up from the back of the chair, ending in a grey, crescent shaped band with yellow indicator lights. "Hey! Those are those things that you used to suck Zita and I into Everlot!"

"Immersion Caps?" Kim asked, looking at the devices curiously.

"Exactly!" Malcolm grinned. "Our system's code is too complex to manipulate with primitive input methods like a keyboard and mouse once it's running. We want to send you in and see what you can find out."

"In?" Kim asked, suddenly uncertain. "To the computer game?"

Malcolm laughed. "No... into the source code of Mainframe itself." he smiled. "Theoretically, the Immersion Caps should translate the code into something your brain can understand."

"Coolio!" Ron grinned.

Kim turned to him in annoyance. "He said, theoretically, Ron!"

"The Immersion Caps will scan you, creating a digital avatar that will represent you and all your gear. You'll be going in with everything you have on you." Malcolm smiled. Ron grinned, patting down his new red jacket that he had attained after the top half that was left of his Canadian Spy uniform had been disintegrated in his battle against Kim.

"Yeah, but..." Kim began. "I'm still curious... why us?"

"I'll be honest, Kim." Malcolm stated. His smiled faded and he took his glasses off, folding them up. "It could be dangerous. We honestly don't know what the Immersion Caps will translate the code into, or what this virus may be capable of. We have Wade trying to quarantine it in the system, but whoever programmed it is good. The fact is, we can't exactly market a Full Immersion system if it's viral."

"Well, Ron..." Kim said, looking behind herself. "Ron?"

"Boot us up, Malcolm! I'm pumped!" Ron grinned, already in a seat. Rufus sat in a chair beside him, waiting for the cap to descend.

"I guess that's a yay." Kim said, taking a seat beside Ron.

"One more thing." Malcolm added, opening a secure, vapor sealed container that hissed when he opened it. He took out two small disks. Each one had a diamond shape that was split from one corner to the other, contrasted against the two colors of the disk itself. He handed a black and yellow one to Kim, and a black and white one to Ron. "These will identify you as standard computer code to the virus protection program we have running. That way, it won't attempt to... uh, delete you." Malcolm said, smiling nervously.

"Delete us?" Kim asked, taking the disk and pinning it to the front of her mission shirt.

"Don't worry. Our Guardian program is top of the line. So long as you have this on you, you'll be safe." Malcolm explained.

"What about Rufus?" Ron asked, pinning his disk onto his black mission hoodie. "Doesn't he need one?"

"It's doubtful that he'll have enough digital mass to attract attention from the Guardian program. He'll probably show up as nothing more than nullified code." Malcolm assured him.

Ron frowned, looking down at Rufus and giving a shrug. "Okay... I guess."

"Now, we won't be able to communicate in real time because of the processor speed of our system. It's no super computer, but it'll run any game we've run through it."

"Do that often?" Ron asked.

"We actually launch test games every few minutes. You'll have to try one sometime, Ron." Malcolm grinned.

Kim placed her gloved hand on Ron's and smiled into his eyes. One corner of Ron's mouth turned up in the same fashion before their first real kiss at their junior prom. But still her remained quiet. She hoped that they would have the chance to talk at some point soon. "Okay, Malcolm..." Kim said, taking a deep breath. "Plug us in."

Malcolm had positioned himself behind the control console. "Hold on, then. Rebooting..." he said, holding his finger over the launch button. "Now!"


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

"Ron?" Kim asked. She was in complete darkness, standing on a hard, yet unlevel floor. She carefully reached her arms out to either side, trying to explore her surroundings.

"Where are we, Kim?" Ron asked from beside her. He looked to his right, catching sight of Kim's eyes that seemed to be glowing in the dark. "Is this what it looks like inside a computer?"

"I don't know." Kim said, reaching out to him and clutching his jacket in an attempt to cure her disorientation. "We should try and find some walls or something to find our way out of here."

"Rufus?" Ron asked the blackness. "You here?" An odd sounding squeak responded and Ron could feel a sudden weight crawl up his side and sit on his shoulder. The couple looked up at the eerie sound of an old wooden door swinging open and light poured into the room. Ron complained, squeezing his eyes shut and Kim blocked out the glare with a hand. There seemed to be a set of wooden stairs leading up to a now open door. Within that doorway stood the silhouette of what looked like a beach ball with arms and legs.

Ron opened his eyes slightly, looking at his hands. "Check me, KP... I'm a cartoon!"

"Ron, company..." Kim whispered, looking out of the corner of her eye at her boyfriend. Then her eyes widened as she caught sight of a slender, pink, slug like and featureless blob perched on Ron's shoulder. "Is that Rufus?!"

Ron turned his head and his face pinched in a look of surprise. "Wah!" he shouted. Rufus was flung to the side and Ron leapt up the stairs and over the beach ball. He shook in disgust, flailing his limbs in an attempt to make sure the pink blob wasn't still on him. When he finally stopped to look around, he found he was surrounded by a number of strange looking beings. Some, like the one he had just jumped over, stood up to his knee and resembled metal balls with facial features pinned on and awkward arms and legs attached. Others stood up to his waist, and resembled a stack of three blocks with one large eye on the top block with various hair styles, a mid section that contained a speaker like mouth with arms jutting out from either side, and a bottom block that passed for an abdomen with short, awkward legs. Ron's eyes widened in disbelief as each of the short creatures pulled a sword shaped weapon from their belts. "Kim?!"

Kim performed an acrobatic flip to land at Ron's side, putting her back to his. "What are these things?"

"Better yet, where are we?" Ron asked. Ignoring the strange beings around them, Kim and Ron took in their surroundings. They seemed to be on some sort of modernized pirate ship as it flew through a dizzyingly bright tunnel of light, powered by half a dozen sails that seemed to float about the ship, suspended by nothing at all.

* * *

Captain Capacitor looked down at his crew of binomes, who surrounded two sprites that had just leapt from his storage hold. He dug the hook that replaced his left hand into the railing of the Saucy Mare, then turned his one eye to his accountant, a small round binome. "By the Code, Mr. Christopher!" he gallantly shouted, running a hand across one end of his large, twisted moustache. "What's all this, then?"

"Seems to be stowaways, sir." Mr. Christopher said, addressing his records on the datapad that he held in his hand. "By my calculations, the added mass and reduction in speed is going to reduce our profits by sixty four percent." he continued in a nasally voice. "Ms. Matrix won't be pleased..."

"Yea heard that, lads?!" Captain Capacitor shouted to his crew on the main deck. "Over board with them, or it'll come out of your bitmaps!"

* * *

Kim and Ron parted as one binome lunged. He over thrust, however, striking a companion with his sword and encasing the target in a green, translucent cube. Kim crouched, sweeping her leg in a wide arc. Rufus leapt from Kim's hip pocket, his featureless body slapping against the nearest binome that was threatening Kim's back.

"Okay, little computer generated dudes," Ron said, putting his back against the wall. "Prepare to feel some mystical monkey power!" he grinned, extending his arms out to either side and concentrating. When nothing happened, his grin faded. The binomes that cornered him shrugged, poking him with a sword and encasing him in another translucent cube.

"Ron!" Kim shouted, spinning. Ron appeared to be frozen, a worried look permanently chiseled into his features. A blocky crew member passed by with his arms flailing in the air and screaming in fear, running awkwardly away from Rufus, who was crawling like a worm across the deck after him.

Captain Capacitor laughed, drawing his own sword and staring at Kim with his one large, central eye. "Best give yerself up, lass! Nay a villain has ever escaped the Crimson Binome!"

Kim glared up at the Captain. He was one of the taller, blocky creatures, but dressed in an extravagant red jacket and pirate's hat, with a crop of red straggly hair jutting out in a spiky mess, and a wide, tangled moustache and goatee that surrounded his speaker like mouth. A peg replaced his right leg, and a gold hook took the place of his left hand. Kim decided not to waste time with questions. In his good hand, he held a sword like the rest of the crew and pointed it at Kim as a challenge.

A swift kick connected with one of the rotund binomes, sending him flying like a soccer ball towards the Captain, knocking the sword from Capacitor's hand. Kim leapt easily over the various pirate's heads, rebounding off of the cube that encased Ron, and landed with one foot on the Captain's middle block, knocking him to the floor. With one raised hand, she caught the sword on its way down, pointing it at the Captain's suddenly confused eye. "You'd better hope you can set him free." Kim growled, an unfamiliar coolness touching her voice.

Captain Capacitor blinked once, and frowned. But it wasn't the tip of the sword that caught his eye, but the blue, round object on Kim's wrist and the black and gold icon on her shirt. "Aye... Aye! Set the sprite free, men!"

Kim didn't turn away, but listened for Ron. "Ron?" she shouted. Despite the one binome that was still running for his life from Rufus, Kim could pick out Ron's still boyish voice.

"I'm okay, Kim!" Ron shouted back. He looked around cautiously at the sword wielding creatures that surrounded him. He looked down at Rufus and frowned, cupping his hands in front of him. "That really you, buddy?" The featureless pink blob seemed to look at itself and nodded an affirmative.

Kim rolled her eyes, whispering to herself. "Now he thinks it's weird..." She turned her attention back to the Captain that was still under her foot. "Where are we?" she asked, poking the sword forward for emphasis.

"You be sailin' aboard the Saucy Mare... Guardian." the Captain said. He cautiously used his hook hand to push the point of the sword away from his face. "And we be sailin' toward the port of Mainframe."

Kim took her foot off of the Captain's midsection and backed up beside Ron as he climbed the stairs. "Well, sounds like we're on the right track." Ron stated, placing Rufus into his pants pocket.

"You called me a Guardian." Kim said. "Why?"

Captain Capacitor picked up his hat and placed it back on his balding, cubical head. "Don't think me basic, lass. I know a keytool and Guardian Icon when I see'em. We've tangled with your kind before, we have." he said, gesturing to Kim's wrist Kimmunicator and the small badge that Malcolm had given her.

"Coming into port, Cap'n!" shouted the helmsman.

Kim and Ron turned to look out over the deck of the ship as the tunnel of light that they had been flying through disintegrated, revealing a glassy ocean with a digital ripple that seemed to mimic the tide. Ahead of the ship sat an island that floated in the air above the ocean, and it looked as though it was composed entirely of sky scrapers and futuristic buildings; an urban center that stretched from shore to shore. "Boo-yah..." Ron whispered, his eyes widening.

"That's Mainframe?" Kim asked, as Captain Capacitor limped up beside her. Hesitantly, she handed the sword back to him.

"Aye. Tis no supercomputer, but tis been our home for nary a few minutes since running into its Guardian." the Captain said. "Mr. Christopher!" he shouted to the round accountant that never seemed to leave his side. "Let Ms. Matrix and Guardian Bob know of our new friends!"

"Yes, sir." Mr. Christopher responded, tapping on his data pad.

"I'm curious though, lass... why'd yea have to sneak aboard?" the Captain asked, looking up at Kim as the Saucy Mare turned into the dock of the city. "The Crimson Binome is always willing to lend his ship to the aid of the Guardians." he said, digging his hook hand into the railing in front of him. "For a slight profit, of course." he grinned.

"It's uh... complicated." Kim replied with a smile.

"We're from the real world." Ron said, finally taking his eyes off of the city.

The Captain looked back it him, confused.

"Outside of the computer..." Ron rephrased as a crowd of the crew began to collect around them.

"Ron..." Kim whispered. "I don't think they know where that is."

"Oh." he said, thinking. "We're from outer sp–. Wah!" Ron tried explaining before Kim pulled him down the stairs.

"We might want to stay low pro until we find out what's going on." Kim suggested. Waving back at the Captain, she shouted up at him. "Thanks for the ride, Mr. Binome, sir! I owe you a favor!" she smiled, stepping onto the dock that was full of more of the small, odd looking people.

Captain Capacitor waved back with his hook and smiled, whispering to the side to Mr. Christopher. "A favor from a Guardian? Log that down in our inventory, Mr. Christopher..."

"Yes, sir!" the accountant replied excitedly.


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Kim stepped off of the Saucy Mare onto what she could only describe as a steel dock, populated by more of the binomes that had been on the ship, working on moving boxes on and off, seemingly unnerved by their presence. Ron stepped past her and Kim raised her hand to brush her hair back behind her ear. As she did, she found that it was shaking. The incident on the ship had caught her off guard. For the last year and a half, Ron had essentially been able to take care of himself, utilizing his monkey powers to great effect, and after nearly killing him herself, both emotionally and physically, she couldn't help but feel even more protective of him than she had in High School. As she steadied her hand, it occurred to Kim how much she had held back when she had knocked down the pirate Captain.

Ron was taking in the sight of the computer generated city with a boyish grin on his face as a variety of individual binomes went about their business, some ignoring him and some cursing under their breath as they tried to work around him. "Isn't this badical, Kim?!" he shouted, staring up at the flying cars, sparkling skyscrapers, and the digitally patterned sky. "Just look at this place!"

Kim took a quick glance at the environment as she stepped up beside Ron. The city was impressive, she had to admit. But the idea of being in a computer system wasn't sitting well with her. "Let's find this virus or whatever and get out of here. This out of body experience thing is getting a little old for..."

A shrill chime echoed through the air and a screen at least twenty feet tall and thirty feet wide appeared, floating in the air before them. "We so need one of those in our apartment!" Ron grinned.

"What is this, a pop up?" Kim asked, gesturing to the image on the screen.

A massive blue figure that seemed part mechanical, part body builder, was staring back at them with green, florescent eyes that had glowing red pupils. A dark red crown-like feature protruded from the back of his metallic skull, his face ended with a small, pointed nose, and an over exaggerated jaw. "Well now, it would appear that this hovel of a system has some new visitors..." the image said in a deep, suave English accent.

Ron's eyes widened as Kim's narrowed. "You getting the same villain vibe I am?" Kim asked plainly.

"Oh, yeah." Ron and Rufus both replied with a nod.

The figure in the image steepled his fingers, which were visibly highlighted with small gold claws. "Now really, is that any way for a new visitor to speak to your host? Are those the manners they're teaching you young Guardians now?"

"How about we stop with the tea and biscuits and you tell us what you want?" Kim stated, growing irritated with her uncertainty as to what would, or could happen next.

The figure narrowed his eyes to slits and leaned forward, the green florescent line that served as his lips turning up on either side in a sinister grin. "I will make you the same offer I made the current pathetic Guardian of this system. Join me, or be deleted!"

Kim and Ron looked at each other with boredom showing obviously on their faces.

The robotic figure sat back, staring at them with an intense, irritated glare. "I had hoped that we could have come to an understanding of one another." he said calmly. "A pity. Hack, Slash... delete them."

Immediately, the screen vanished with the same shrill chime and behind it were two black, floating armored tanks, each bristling with weaponry. On the outer side of each vehicle hung a dome headed robot, one red, one blue. They looked like suits of shiny armored plates, all hanging off of a frail looking skeleton with bulbous forearms and a torso that ended in a white energy ball that they balanced on. "You got it, boss!" they shouted in unison.

"You take the right one." said the one in red, using a soprano like voice that had too much helium.

"Which is the right one?" asked the blue robot, distinguishing himself with a much deeper voice.

"The one that's not on the left." the red one explained. "That's obvious!"

"Are these guys for real?" Kim asked Ron, gesturing to their attackers.

"Drakken's goons have nothing on these two..." Ron replied.

"I thought you meant opposed to the wrong one!" the blue robot argued.

"Well which one is the wrong one? We're supposed to delete them both, aren't we?"

"I thought we were. Now I'm not sure."

"How can you not be sure? The boss just said..."

Kim cleared her throat. "Uhm, guys?" the two robots stopped arguing immediately and turned to her. "Can we hurry this up? I've got a paper due tomorrow and sitting at a computer for hours listening to people argue isn't my idea of a good time."

The two robots looked at each other in confusion and Kim feared they were about to start arguing again. "Charge!" they cried. The hovering tanks nearly collided as they crossed paths. Kim and Ron parted, each of the tanks following them. Kim was running along the docks, scattering the workers as explosions erupted on either side of her, leaving craters in the ground.

The tank's cannon fired a moment after Kim moved each time, causing small buildings and obstacles to vanish in a flicker of light as they were deleted. Kim drew her grapple gun and rolled to a stop as the tank flew over head and banked hard in an effort to turn around.

Kim aimed and fired. The grapple shot out on a red, glowing line of energy and attached itself to the back of the flying, armored vehicle. The tank continued to spin and Kim was lifted off of her feet, swinging in a wide arc around behind it.

Hack rotated his head as he peered over the front of the Armored Binome Carrier, looking for the red haired sprite that Megabyte had ordered deleted. "I guess we got her." he said to himself as he heard the top hatch of the ABC open behind him. He turned, expecting to see the pilot, but instead, the hatch closed again.

Hack scratched his domed head as the ABC began shaking violently. Suddenly, one of the anti-personnel cannons rotated in his direction and the distinctive sound of it powering up caused him to turn. "Uh oh..."

Kim fired the cannon, causing the red, armored robot to shatter into a dozen pieces and fall to the ground below. "Sorry!" she shouted from the pilot's seat of the ABC. "But I really need to go save my boyfriend." she said to herself, pushing the twin control yokes forward and accelerating.

* * *

Ron put his back against a wall and took a breath as bolts of white energy shot past. "Rufus, you see Kim anywhere?" he asked. The featureless pink blob on his shoulder that his naked mole rat buddy had been translated into by the computer system shook what Ron could only guess was his head. "Then I guess it's up to us. Let's see if the monkey powers are back." he said, concentrating.

Nothing happened.

"Okay, new plan..." he said with a frown. The ABC flew by, knocking over building supports and signs in its attempt to turn the corner. "Run!" Ron shouted and Rufus dived into his pocket. There were at least two anti-personnel turrets that were strafing the area a few feet behind him and Ron dived to the ground as the tank flew overhead.

"Glitch, power shield!" Ron heard from above him. He looked around to see the fully automatic fire ricochet harmlessly off of a translucent yellow field in front of him.

"Uh oh!" shouted the blue robot that was still holding onto the side of the ABC.

"Glitch, compactor!"

Ron looked up to see a blue skinned man with short, dark silver dread locks standing on a pair of disks that were joined by a flexible rod and hovering several feet above him. The yellow field contracted and moved to wrap itself around the ABC, squeezing until the tank began to crumple like an empty soda can. Ron pushed his confusion away enough to let out a whispered, "Coolio..."

The ABC fell and the yellow field collapsed into a small black object on the blue man's wrist. "Are you okay?" came a female voice from beside Ron as the man above him floated down to the ground. The domed head of the blue robot could still be seen looking around, poking out from the heap that was left of the ABC.

Ron turned to see an attractive, if green skinned, woman with short black hair and dressed in a red jumpsuit, offering her hand to help him up. "I'm Dot Matrix. And you are?"

"I... I'm... uh..." Ron stammered, taking her hand.

"Don't worry. Dot has that effect on people." said the blue man. He grinned at the annoyed look that he got from the woman and offered his hand as well. "I'm Bob."

"Ron..." he replied, looking between the two people before him. Before he could continue, another ABC rounded the corner and drifted to a stop, aiming all of its cannons at the trio. "That's not good..."

Bob jumped back on his floating pair of disks and spoke into the device on his wrist. "Glitch, plasma..."

"Ron?!" came Kim's voice over the ABC's intercom. The top hatch swung open and Kim climbed out, glaring down at Bob and Dot. "You okay?" she asked with a hint of suspicion.

"Us?" Ron asked, looking nonchalant as Rufus climbed up to his shoulder again. "We're good. I mean, why wouldn't we be?" he asked, scratching his nose and looking away. Kim smiled knowingly.


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

"Do those two look familiar to you, Bob?" Dot asked as she flew alongside the Guardian on her Zip-Disk. The red haired sprite and her golden haired companion flew behind them in one of Megabyte's ABC's. Dot looked back at the menacing black tank.

"There's definitely something not right, Dot." Bob replied. He looked down at the small rectangle mounted on his forearm. "Glitch, how's that scan coming?" The keytool gave a chirp and vibrated a little, showing readings on its circular monitor. "This just isn't making any sense! They both have system PIDs native to Mainframe, but I'm reading game code from them. Even the Null!"

Dot frowned. "Then why are we trusting them in an ABC, then?"

Bob smiled with a lopsided grin. "Don't worry about that. I think I can handle one ABC. Let's just get them to Phong. Maybe he can figure out what's up with these two."

* * *

Kim sat uncomfortably in the hard pilot's seat of the ABC, which was obviously meant for a cubicle rear end. It seemed piloting a flying tank was even easier than landing a space shuttle or evading laser fire on an alien sky cycle. Ron was standing behind her with a hand resting on the back of her seat while Rufus slithered back and forth on the control console. "Where do you think..." Ron began, looking at the pair of digital characters ahead of them.

"To someone named Phong." Kim answered, still concentrating on the pair. Lip reading was something that had developed over time with sneaking into villain lairs and trying to ascertain their plans ahead of time so that she didn't have to constantly sit through their monologues.

"I was going to ask where they get those badical disks that they're flying on." Ron said with a frown. He turned away and quietly sat down in one of the gunnery chairs.

Kim sighed. She suddenly realized that she was in mission mode again. For now, it seemed that the danger was passed. At least until they found out who or what this Megabyte character was. She set the ABC's automatic pilot to follow Bob and Dot, allowing her to spin and face Ron. "We need to talk."

Ron averted his eyes and crossed his arms. "What about?" he asked, trying to focus on something, anything, in the tank other than Kim's penetrating green eyes. But even though she was keeping her puppy dog pout in reserve, Ron couldn't help himself.

"How long am I going to have to beg for forgiveness?" Kim blurted out finally. She had never felt indebted to Ron like she did since the adventure in Miami. They had saved each other's lives hundreds of times and neither of them felt as though they owed the other anything. But Kim still remembered the things that she had said and did in that hangar.

"Forgiveness?" Ron asked, genuinely confused after a moment of searching Kim's face. "For what?" he said with a laugh.

Now Kim was confused as well. At first, it seemed as though Ron was trying to avoid talking about it again. But that familiar look of sincere bewilderment was obvious on his face. "Uh, for trying to kill you? For nearly destroying the world?"

Ron laughed. "That's hardly new, KP."

Kim narrowed her eyes. "What?"

Ron still wore a comical grin on his face. "I mean, the mind control chip, the moodulator, Homecoming, Junior Prom..."

"Junior Prom?" Kim asked, trying to remember. "I didn't..."

"Being abandoned for Erik probably hurt more than any katana..." Ron went on.

Kim frowned at the recollection and sighed. "Is that what this is about?! Erik? Ron, that was almost three years ago!"

"What?!" Ron asked in surprise. "No! I mean..." he stood up as he spoke and began to pace the length of the ABC, wringing his hands in thought.

"Ron, what is it?" Kim asked quietly. Seeing Ron Stoppable pace nervously wasn't exactly anything new, and neither was not understanding his logic. But this was something serious.

Ron stopped, facing Kim and looking down into her eyes. "It's... it's..."

A metallic knock on the rear ramp of the ABC interrupted him. "It's time to go." came Dot's voice.

Ron frowned and Kim sighed, turning in the pilot's chair to look out the forward view port. The autopilot had set them down in front of a large gold and white sphere without her noticing. It was suspended above an even larger bowl-like crater in the center of the city. Kim turned back to Ron and stood up, stopping on her way towards the door to touch Ron's cheek with one hand and place a quick kiss on his lips. "Promise me we'll talk about this later?" she asked. Ron nodded reluctantly and Kim continued on, slapping her hand against the mechanism to open the hatch.

The ramp fell with a resounding thud and Bob and Dot stood at the foot of it, waiting. "Everything okay?" Bob asked with a smile.

"Spankin'." Kim responded plainly. "Where are we?" she asked as she descended the ramp. Ron followed behind her, with Rufus leaping into his pocket.

"This is the Principal Office." Dot said, gesturing to the sphere. A wide bridge spanned the gap from the edge of the bowl to the doors on the oddly shaped building, and Kim began following the two sprites across.

"Is there any world I don't get sent to the principal office in?" Ron asked, following closely behind the other three.

As they neared the doors of the building, Kim took notice of more of the round and cubical beings that Bob and Dot had called Binomes. These were colored green and white, in a uniform pattern and wearing what looked like real world SWAT team body armor. There were several rows of what Kim could only describe as wheel-less patrol cars, that were lined up outside. Kim and Ron were being eyed suspiciously as they passed by, and Kim waved with a friendly smile. "Is there anyone else around here... y'know... like us?" she asked.

She couldn't help but notice Dot frown slightly, and Bob spoke up with hesitation in his voice. "The city of Lost Angles was destroyed a few hours ago. Most of the sprites that lived in Mainframe were there when it happened."

"Including my dad." Dot continued solemnly. The door to the Principal office slid open to reveal a long, grandeur hallway several stories high.

"Hours ago?!" Ron exclaimed, louder than he had intended. His words echoed uncomfortably in the hall and he clamped his hands over his mouth.

"Oh, I'm so sorry..." Kim said with a cringe. "I mean, I didn't..."

Dot smiled back. "It's okay. It's in the past now. But if you are here to help us against Megabyte..."

"Megabyte... sure." Kim smiled. "So he's the virus thingy?"

"Megabyte's a Class Three File Virus with bad clusters in almost every sector." Bob explained.

"Really?" Ron asked. "Wow. Well, why don't we just pretend that..."

"We don't know what that means." Kim finished, letting a wry smile touch her lips. She hoped that letting Ron know that she felt as out of place as he did might put him more at ease.

Bob eyed them both suspiciously before opening the next set of doors. "Y'know... Kim was it?" he asked. Kim nodded. "You never told me your Guardian designation."

"My which, sorry?" Kim asked. The doors opened into a small office with a defined homey feel to it. A desk sat organized in the center with pictures of Bob, Dot, a green skinned boy with a red cap, and a vaguely asian looking mechanical E.T with tiny glasses, adorning the walls.

"Who's the weird looking guy in the.." Ron began as he entered the room and took in his surroundings. Before he could finish, the creature from the picture spun around in the chair behind the desk and steepled his thin, stick-like fingers.

"Kim, Ron... this is Phong. Mainframe's Command dot com." Dot said, taking a position next to Phong's chair.

Ron laughed nervously at his sudden social faux pas. Kim hesitated a moment, then shrugged. "I'm Kim Possible." she smiled. "This is my boyfriend, Ron Stoppable." she continued. "We're here to help you with a virus problem you're having."

"See, Phong? I told you. Game Sprites." Bob said from behind Kim and Ron.

"Is that possible?" Dot asked in disbelief.

"Uh, hello! Kim Possible! As in, anything is!" Ron exclaimed, earning him a sharp look from Kim.

"Tell me, child. How is it you came upon a Guardian PID?" Phong asked in a soft voice. He pointed at the gold and black disk that Kim had pinned to her shirt.

"This?" she asked, looking down. "It was given to me by Malcolm. The guy that runs Mainframe." The comment caused Dot to gasp and Bob to laugh at the notion.

Phong hopped off of his chair and rolled around his desk, revealing his torso to be nothing more than a box on wheels with a drawer. "This is certainly a strange occurrence. Even for Mainframe!" he exclaimed.

"You're telling me..." Kim said under her breath.

"That's not all, Phong." Dot said, glaring at Ron. "He carries a Null."

"What? Rufus?" Ron asked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the pink blob. "He's a naked mole rat... sorta." Rufus slithered up to Ron's shoulder, looking around. "What's the big deal?"

Bob stepped forward with his hands on his hips. "Viruses are the only thing unaffected by Nulls." he said.

"And Hex is the only one we've encountered that can communicate with them." Dot continued.

As Ron shrank away from Bob's gaze, Kim stepped between them. "You want our help or not?"

"When you can come up with a less Basic story than a User that gave a Game Sprite a Guardian PID and then teamed you up with a Virus and a Null, by all means..." Bob said, trying to stare her down.

"Quick question..." Ron said, raising his hand. "What happens, exactly, when a... er... Sprite thing touches a... Null thing?"

"Ah..." Phong said, shaking his head at the sudden tension between Bob and Kim. "Intense pain and a continuous drain of energy until deletion."

"Right. So no good news either way." Ron sulked.

* * *

"So let's just get this virus thing over with." Kim said as she and Ron flew along on their own new Zip Disks that Phong had provided for them. Ron was, as usual, having difficulty on the contraption.

"A Guardian's Code is to mend and defend. Not delete." Bob shot back.

Kim narrowed her eyes at him. "I thought you had decided that I wasn't a Guardian. Besides, he's just going to keep causing trouble in your city." Kim insisted.

"Kinda like Drakken did in ours?" Ron asked, a worried look on his face.

"That's different, Ron!" Kim said, spinning her Zip-Disk and flying backward in order to face him. Ron was laying down on the dual platforms, trying to belly surf awkwardly through the air. "Drakken was human. This Mega-whatever is just bits and bytes." she argued. She tapped her wrist mounted Kimmunicator in hopes that Wade would agree with her, but only a screen full of static appeared. Kim growled.

The four descended down to street level in front of some sort of restaurant with the word 'Dot's' mounted in large red letters above the roof. "I could so go for a Naco right now!" Ron grinned, picking himself up after dropping to the ground on his Zip-Disk.

As Bob opened the door to the Diner, Ron scooted past him, searching for any food that might prove familiar... only to be bowled over by a boy with green skin and short black hair, wearing a sideways red cap, a white shirt with a zero one on the chest and blue, padded pants. "You're not Bob." he said, looking down into Ron's face.

"No kidding..." Ron replied with an out of breath grimace.

"Enzo!" Dot shouted, walking in behind Bob. The boy got up from Ron's chest, looking up at the Guardian, and then at Kim as she walked in last.

"Two Guardians?! Alpha Numeric! Now we'll give the User and old Megabreath a run for thier chips, huh Bob?!" Enzo exclaimed in excitement.

Ron sat up as the other stepped around him and he came face to snout with a growling, metallic gold and red rottweiler the size of a large bear. Ron closed one eye and cringed. "Nice pooch?"

Rufus squeezed out of Ron's pocket, landing on Ron's head and growling at the dog. Surprisingly, the dog whined and tilted its head in curiosity. "Naked Null Rat trumps big mean doggie." Ron smiled, holding Rufus in both hands. "Good to know."

"Frisket's not mean!" Enzo said, taking a seat next to Bob in one of the Diner's booths. He called the large dog over to him and grinned, scratching behind its ear. "Are you, boy?" Frisket whined and panted with the affection. "So what are you guys doing here, anyway? Something big going down?" he asked Kim, who sat across from him beside Dot.

"She's not really a Guardian, Enzo." Bob said as he waved for the waiter, a menu screen with arms, that hung from a track on the ceiling that ran around the Diner's interior. It promptly ignored the Guardian.

"What do you mean?!" Enzo cried.

"We're not really sure who, or what, they are." Dot admitted.

"Hello? Still here!" Kim said with annoyance. "So what are we going to do about this Mega-creep so we can all go back to our own lives?" she asked, looking longingly at Ron, who was arguing with the waiter about Nacos. Right now, all she wanted to do was sit and talk to him.

"We never asked for your..." Bob began. Suddenly, a crack of thunder echoed across the city and the sky turned from a sunny blue with sparse clouds to a dark, swirling purple. "Uh oh..."

"Incoming Game..." said a female voice that seemed to emanate from the sky. "Warning. Incoming Game..." it continued to repeat.

"Supercooled!" Enzo shouted. "With two Guardians, we're going to totally kick the User's bitmap!"

"A game?!" Kim sighed. "We don't have time for this!"

"Boo-Yah!" Ron shouted with a grin.

Bob glared at Kim for a moment. "If you'd rather not play the game, then stay. But I'm a Guardian. My format is to defend this system." he stated, poking a thumb at his chest. He rushed out the double doors of the diner, double tapping his Zip Disk on his belt as he did. It fell to the ground and expanded, and he hopped onto the dual platforms, flying towards a large purple cube that began to slowly drop from a hole in the darkened sky.

"Can I come too, Dot? Please?!" Enzo pleaded.

Dot turned to stop him at the door, dropping her own Zip Disk to the ground. "Not this time, Enzo. Stay here." she ordered, stepping onto the Zip Disk and following Bob.

Kim and Ron stepped up beside Enzo, watching Bob and Dot speed away. "They sure take their games seriously, don't they?" Kim asked the boy.

Enzo's mouth gaped open at her. "Are you kidding?! If the User wins, the whole sector will be nullified!"

"Come again?" Ron asked in confusion.

"Downgraded! Crashed! Complete format! Total memory wipe! Game over!" he shouted excitedly.

"That kinda sounds like a bad thing..." Ron concluded.

"It'll turn everyone in the sector into a null, like that." Enzo said, pointing at Rufus. "Including Bob and my sister!"

Kim sighed, looking at Ron. Ron nodded back with an eager grin. "Let's jet." she said, double tapping her folded Zip Disk and jumping on.

"One problem." Enzo said as Ron jumped onto his Zip Disk. "Nulls don't like games."

Ron spun around a few times on his floating Zip Disk, looking at Rufus. "He likes games..." But inexplicably, the pink blob seemed to be shivering in fear as he watched the Game Cube drop. "Maybe you should sit this one out, buddy." Ron said, taking Rufus off of his shoulder. "Take care of him, will ya?" Ron said, placing Rufus on the ground in front of Enzo.

"Alpha Numeric!" the boy said with a grin.

"Ron!" Kim called. The cube was nearing the city floor now and she could see Bob and Dot trying desperately to get beneath it. "Follow me!"

Ron caught up to Kim quickly and did his best to follow her through girders and traffic that was trying to get out of the Cube's way. Both Kim and Ron crouched as they skimmed along the streets of the lowest point in the city and the swirling purple and black colors of the Cube descended on them, pulsing with energy as it stabilized.


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

"And I was just starting to enjoy the show!" Hexadecimal said sadly. Pouty lips and a single blue tear adorned her white drama mask. She was sitting in her throne room in the center of the city of Lost Angles, looking down into the view screen on the top of her pet's head. Scuzzy, a cat-like sphere, was motionless for a moment before switching off his view screen and looking up at his master, uncertain whether adoration of punishment would soon be following.

Hexadecimal had been watching the last few seconds of events unfold with delight as the group of four sprites entered the game cube. An uninvited Guardian and her companion were causing chaos in Mainframe, especially with the various other Sprites that inhabited the twin city, like Dot and Bob.

Bob? Hexadecimal's mask turned from one of sorrow to menace, with red glowing eyes and a fang filled maw. Having the blue Guardian fawn over the Matrix girl was insult enough, but now with this Kim Possible as well, was there any room for Hex? She touched her chin in thought, her mask becoming one of intrigue, with a wry smile and upturned eyebrow. "Obviously, this Kim Possible must be destroyed, then." she said aloud.

The shrill chime of a vidwindow opened up in her lair before her with Megabyte's visage occupying it. "Ah, Hex..." he began in his suave English accent. "I imagine you know of our visitors by now?"

"Me?" Hexadecimal asked, her mask taking on an innocent look with the touch of a frown. "What makes you think that I'd have any interest..." she said tenderly, before escalating into a hot tempered scream, her mask turning back into an image of rage. "... in that flame haired hussy!"

Megabyte raised his blue, steel eyebrows in reserved fascination. "I see. Then I am to assume you also have no interest in my plan to rid Mainframe of this new Guardian? A pity..."

"Oh?" Hex's mask changed to a grin with glowing green eyes. "I'm listening!"

* * *

"Ron?"

"Are we dead?" Ron asked, still curled into a ball on the pavement. When they had flown under the Game Cube, he had expected an opening inside with four walls dropping around them. Not an actual solid cube.

"I don't think so." Kim answered. "But I don't think we're in Mainframe anymore either."

Ron stood up, looking around. While they remained in some form of city, spanning as far as the eye could see, it looked far more real world than the one they had just left. There were massive space vessels that could be seen battling overhead and the sounds of war could be heard throughout the streets. "This looks familiar..."

Kim spun at the sound of footfalls coming from around the corner of one of the tall skyscrapers and she instantly crouched, ready to attack or dodge as the situation warranted. "I thought you weren't interested in playing games." Bob said, as he and Dot approached.

Kim glared at him in irritation. "I'm not. I'm interested in helping people. And you neglected to mention what would happen if you lost." she stated, coming face to face with the blue skinned Guardian.

"Guys?" Ron asked, taking a few steps away from the group to look down the street.

"Bob and I have been doing just fine." Dot said, crossing her arms.

"Look," Bob began. "Every Guardian is trained to deal with Games and Viruses. It's part of the Academy's curriculum. Now tell me exactly how you managed to come upon a Guardian PID..." he said, pointing at Kim's icon. "... and a key tool." he continued, gesturing to the device on her wrist.

"One, this is a Kimmunicator! Complete with two way video conferencing, cybertronic technology, a super magnet.." Kim argued, holding up the pale blue device that was strapped to her wrist as Bob and Dot took a step back at the word 'magnet'. "Second, this PID badge thingy was given to me."

"By who?" Bob asked, suspiciously

Kim hesitated a moment, considering dropping the bomb herself that her and Ron were from outside the computer. "A Use..."

"Guys?!" Ron shouted back as a squad of ten soldiers crept toward them around civilian vehicles and street debris.

"What?!" Bob and Kim replied in annoyance.

"We've got company!" Ron shouted. He began running towards the group, shielding his head with his arms as beams of energy singed past him, kicking up tufts of burning dirt as they struck their surroundings.

Reflexively, Kim dived forward, tackling Bob to the ground behind a sleek, red sports car. Ron was still panicking, dancing around as bits of charged particles exploded around him. "Get down!" Dot shouted, grabbing his hand as she ran past, dragging him down behind a bus stop cubicle. She looked over at Kim and Bob as bits of concrete continued to explode and the sharp sounds of energy whizzing by kept either group from reaching the other.

"Look, we're here. You'd might as well let us help." Kims aid to Bob as she put her back to the side of the sports car, tilting her head enough to try to spot their attackers through the window of the car. She quickly ducked back as the glass shattered.

"Fine. Ready to reboot?" Rob asked.

"Pardon?" Kim asked as Bob double tapped his PID. A brilliant column of light flashed, replacing the blue skinned Guardian's uniform with a suit of composite plated armor, complete with a tactical helmet and a dark silver faceplate. Somehow, a high tech assault laser rifle had also spontaneously appeared in his hands. "Okaayy... that was unexpected."

"Glitch..." Bob said into the keytool that remained on his wrist. "Stats."

Ron seemed to be in shock, cupping his hands over his ears. Dot was looking back at Bob, noticing that he had rebooted. "We need to find out what this game is and what the User's after." she said, already formulating a plan.

"It's Mako Three." Ron said in a whisper.

"It's a squad based, multi-User game with two of them logged in." Bob explained. "This is the last level, and their objective is..."

"... to destroy the Mako Commander." Ron continued.

"Which is?" Dot asked, curiously surprised at Ron's sudden knowledge of the game.

"He's a guy in black armor with a gold face plate." Ron said, beginning to shake. "He's..."

"... the leader of the Dark Legion that's invading the planet." Bob continued.

"Wait." Kim said, holding up a hand. "And we have to protect this creep?"

"Correction..." Bob said, looking past Kim at Ron and Dot. Kim turned to follow his gaze to see Dot reboot herself into a red suit of composite armor of the same design as Bob's. Hers, however, featured a dark green face plate. Dot then double tapped Ron's PID, transforming his black mission outfit into a similar suit of armor, with a face plate matching his hair.

Kim sighed. "My boyfriend's the creep."

"So all we have to do is keep him alive. The Users each only have one life, so this shouldn't be..." Bob replied.

But as he spoke, Ron stood up from behind the bus stop that he was sharing with Dot as cover and shouted, "Let's do this! Here comes ROOON STOOOPPPPABLE!!!" He raised his assault laser to his shoulder, firing short bursts at the User's advancing troops as he charged toward them.

"Difficult?" Kim asked dryly. "You have no idea." Kim double tapped her own PID, transforming her mission gear into a suit of dark purple armor with a reflective red face plate.

* * *

"Did the Mako Commander just say what I think he said?" Wade asked. In the few minutes since Kim, Ron, and Rufus had gone under the Immersion Caps, Malcolm had invited him into the first multiplayer test of Mako Three on his game system.

Malcolm popped a cheese doodle into his mouth from an open bag beside his keyboard, trying to take aim at the charging figure in black. "Probably just a glitch." he said nonchalantly. Surprisingly, their target was moving straight toward them with bolts of energy ricocheting off of the cover they were behind. "Better send our Squad Mates up first."

"I guess..." Wade said uncertainly. "That purple one is sure moving erratically."

* * *

Kim was diving from car to building, swinging on a streetlight, and rebounding off of the street and walls in an attempt to catch up to Ron. She actually couldn't believe at how well he was doing, using controlled bursts with his assault laser to gun down members of the User's squad and dodging their return fire. Finally, Kim used her momentum from a series of hand springs to knock Ron down and behind a truck. "What do you think you're doing, Ron?! You could have gotten yourself killed!" she shouted, holding Ron against the side of the truck that was only a few feet from the pair of Users.

"Why can't you just believe in me, Kim?" Ron shouted back. He tried to look into her eyes, but all he could see was himself, the Mako Commander, reflected in Kim's faceplate. Kim sat back on her haunches, confused. Ron seemed to be muttering "I can't save you." to himself, shaking his head as he looked away.

"Ron... what's wrong?" Obviously, whatever had been bothering him was now on the verge of bursting out. For as long as she had known him, he had had little difficulty voicing things to her, at least, other than his feelings for her up until prom night. "Of course I believe in you. I just don't want to see you..."

"Hurt?" Ron asked, looking up at Kim again. "Kim, I know you don't believe in the dream I had, but I do. I have to."

Kim sighed, her ear catching the sound of four of the User's squad mates creeping around the truck. "Hold that thought." she said, holding up a finger to pause him. She lifted herself to her feet and left Ron's field of view. The sound of laser fire erupted, followed soon after by a series of grunts, bone crunching impacts, and a blood curdling scream. A moment later, Kim sat down again in front of Ron. "Okay, go."

"I just feel like no matter what I do, I can't change what's going to happen. I guess I figured if..." Ron said, pausing as an explosion from the other side of the truck shattered the vehicles windows. "... if I started keeping my distance from you, it might not happen how I saw it."

"Ron, no one can see the future for certain." Kim said.

"See what I mean? You don't believe me." Ron sighed. "Believing what I saw was all that kept me going when you went evil. The only thing I could trust to know I could bring you back... somehow. I even knew what Bonnie and Walter were up to before we met them again."

"You what?" Kim asked, suddenly setting Ron's problem aside in her mind. "You knew Bonnie was still alive after she fell into the ocean and that Walter was going to turn my into a vampire, and you didn't tell me?" Kim asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"Are you mad? Because it's kinda hard to tell with the faceplate..." Ron said nervously.

Kim grabbed him by the chest plate, hooking her fingers into the arm holes, and pulled him close enough to tap their helmets together. "Is there anything else you've forgotten to mention?"

"Uhm... I got demoted back to stock boy at Smarty Mart for leaving Lurman in charge when I went to rescue you?" Ron said, cringing.

"Well those two are having a good talk." Bob said across to Dot. Fortunately, he had managed to find cover next to a recharge bin that was constantly feeding his assault laser. So far, he was managing to keep the Users behind cover, unable to act on their own. Instead, they were sending out their squad mates, trying to draw Kim and Ron out from behind the truck.

"All I said was 'here's the plan'. Then he stood up and took off." Dot shouted back. She was watching Kim and Ron through her scope that was mounted on her laser rifle, picking off any of the User's squad mates that tried to flank them.

"Huh." Bob said to himself. "I'm starting to like this guy."

"Ron!" Kim shouted into her boyfriend's covered face. "We can't afford that!" she said, continuing to shake him. "How have you been paying for everything since then, like all the houseboat and stuff?!"

"The Canadians got most of it, but otherwise... credit." Ron explained, his breath getting shallow. "But I... I didn't tell you because I knew how much it meant to you that you get through college without your parent's help."

"Ron... I've always needed help. Rides, gadgets, repelling alien invasions..."

"Well, I guess. But this is college. It's normal stuff. It's something I wanted to do for you. Just me. No Monkey Powers." Ron said soberly, shifting over slightly as a victim of Dot's sniping fell off the roof of the truck and vanished as he landed.

Kim took Ron's helmeted head in her hands, gently tapping her faceplate to his again. "And you're my hero because of it, Ron Stoppable. But neither of us can get through real life alone." Kim and Ron both closed their eyes for a moment, ignoring the virtual war going on around them. A warm tingle flooded through Kim, reminding her of the few minutes she shared Ron's body with him a month ago. "Mmm... that's nice..." she whispered, opening her eyes. Suddenly, Kim recoiled as Ron's familiar blue halo had surrounded both of them. As she drew back her hands, the tingle and glowing aura left her. "I thought your powers weren't working here."

Ron looked at his own glowing hands. "They weren't..."

"Bob, we've got a situation here." Dot said, watching Kim and Ron through her scope. "Something's happening to Ron."

Bob looked around at the game world, noticing a distinct ripple surge through the area, illuminating the normally invisible walls of the Game Cube. "This is not good."

* * *

"Malcolm?" Wade asked as his screen began to take on a purplish tone. "Something is going on with your system's color balance." he said, looking across the train of computer systems at his gaming partner. Behind Malcolm, however, emanated a deep blue glow that was swirling around Kim, Ron, and Rufus. "Uh, Malcolm?"

"Impossible. These systems are top of the line. Only one step lower than the Immersion Caps themselves, actually. We have to make sure every game works on these before we can run them through the Reality Filter that the Caps are connected to." he said, reaching toward the back of his monitor to adjust the settings. "Just a bug in the game."

"Malcolm..." Wade said, standing and pointing at the trio of friends. "I think your Immersion Caps got their cables crossed."

Malcolm turned and stared at Ron, who was glowing brightly now, filling the room with a purplish glow. "This is not good."


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

Kim pressed the call button on her Kimmunicator again, biting her bottom lip behind her faceplate in the hopes that other rules had suddenly changed while they were in the game. "Kim?" Wade answered finally after a few beeps. "Is that you?"

"Wade!" Kim shouted in relief. "Finally! I've been trying to call for the last few hours! What's wrong?!"

Wade looked confused for a moment. "Uh, testing Mako Three with Malcolm." he smiled innocently. "But you guys have only been under the caps for a few minutes!" he insisted, then it dawned on him. "You're moving at processor speed! Or, were..."

Kim groaned. "Don't guys have anything better to do then... wait, you're playing Mako Three on Malcolm's system?"

"What are you wearing?" Wade asked, looking into Kim's red faceplate.

Holding her wrist Kimmunicator at arm's length, she showed Wade the purple composite armor she was wearing. "We need to have a talk about playing video games during mission time, Wade."

* * *

"They've stopped firing." Dot said, visually scanning the distance with her scope for any of the User's squad mates. Ron was continuing to glow a bright blue as Kim spoke to her keytool. The walls of the Game Cube continued to flicker and the battle ships in orbit above them seemed to stagger in their movements, pausing momentarily before surging forward. "Bob?"

Bob looked from one side of the street to the other, searching for any movement. When none presented itself, Bob leapt over the red sports car that he had taken cover behind and sprinted up to a mailbox, crouching and putting his back to it. The only way they would be able to get out of this game before it crashed would be to win it quickly.

* * *

"Okay, Kim. So here's what we think." Wade said with Malcolm working on various readings in the background. "Somehow, when a game is run on the Mainframe system, it uses some of its code to launch it in order to provide partial processor speed to the numerous sprites that make up the NPCs."

"NPCs?" Kim asked.

"Non player characters." Wade and Ron said in unison, much to Kim's irritation.

"But because the game only uses a fraction of the processor speed for a game, you're moving in real time." Wade explained.

"So once the game is over..." Kim began.

"You'll be back up to a hundred thousand gigahertz, and we won't be able to talk again." Wade said.

"So the game ends if the Mako guy gets killed or..." Kim surmised.

"We do." Wade confirmed. "But something's wrong, Kim. Ron's powers are somehow rewriting the game's code and playing havoc with the hardware. The game will crash in five minutes, at least!"

Kim looked up from her Kimmunicator to see Bob cautiously approaching Wade and Malcolm's position in the game. "I'll buy you some time. Can you help Ron with your character thingy?"

"It'll take some changes to the source code and..."

"Yes or no will do." Kim said impatiently, watching as Bob continued moving from cover to cover.

"Affirmative." Wade replied drily.

Kim cut the connection and stood, looking down at Ron. "Wade's coming to sort this out, Ron. Hold on."

"What are you going to do?" Ron asked. The swirling purple walls of the Game Cube appeared again, warping and bending with Ron's movements.

Kim glared at Bob, catching Dot with her sniper rifle in her peripheral vision. "Break the rules." she said before walking toward Bob as Wade rounded the corner of the truck.

* * *

"Bob... we've got another problem." Dot said into her suit's comm system as she watched Kim walk across the street into the open and toward Bob. One of the Users crept around the pick up toward Ron and Dot fired a bolt of energy that caused the User to dodge back.

"I know, Dot. All the User's squad mates have been unsummoned. We have to end this game before it crashes." Bob answered back.

Before Dot could reply, Bob spun around from inside the alcove of an office building and nearly ran into Kim, who snatched the assault rifle out of his hands and tossed it aside. "Sorry, Bob..." Kim said, knocking the blue armored Guardian back and to the pavement with a palm strike.

Bob shook his head and jumped to his feet. "You said you were here to help!" he shouted. "You'll be deleted too if the User gets to Ron. Those are the rules!"

"Bob, I can't get a clear shot at Kim with you standing there!" Dot said quietly into her comm system. For the moment, Bob ignored her.

"I'm changing the rules." Kim stated. "For now, only Wa... the User... can help Ron. And right now, I'm prepared to do anything to let him." Kim admitted, more to herself than to him.

Bob seemed to relax for a moment. "You're not a Sprite, are you?" Kim shook her head. "So you're a User?" he asked in suspicion.

"Bob, what's going on?" Dot shouted.

"Hold your fire, Dot." Bob replied into his comm.

"I'll do what I can to help with your virus problem, but you have to help me with Ron." Kim said, offering her hand.

"Tell me what the games are for." Bob said, crossing his arms. "Why do User's create viruses and install them into systems?"

"I'm really not the person you should be asking these things." Kim replied with a sigh. "But if we don't help Ron, this game is going to end badly, and I don't know what's going to happen to your city if we can't stop what's happening here."

Bob looked around the street. The walls of the Game Cube continued to flicker, turning a deep blue and red before seeming to bend as a wave-like ripple spread out from the sky and traveled down the walls. "I guess I don't have a choice." he said. "Dot, we're going to do things a little differently this time."

* * *

When the bolts of energy stopped zipping by, Wade made his way toward the Mako Commander, still uncertain as to what was going to happen. The black armored figure turned and seemed to stare at him through his golden face plate. "Hey Wade. Finally made it to the last level, huh?" the Mako Commander asked in an eerie, booming voice that matched the game character.

"Ron?" Wade asked, putting his voice over network headset on. Ron's mystical glow had faded somewhat to a slight haze that enveloped him, though the environment still shifted and rippled whenever he moved or spoke

"In the flesh... er, code, I guess. Heh." he chuckled, causing the street they were on to buckle and heave. "Don't laugh, don't move, don't talk..." he whispered to himself.

"Can't you turn off your Monkey Powers? What happened?" Wade asked, getting to within activation range with his avatar. He plugged in his custom Personal Data Assistant to Malcolm's system and began searching the source code for irregularities. "Malcolm! I need everything you've got on your system. Specs, tech reports, schematics. Everything!" Malcolm hesitated a moment, watching and disbelieving the exchange that was occurring between Wade's avatar and the main boss of a game. "Malcolm! If the game crashes with Kim and Ron inside, we won't be able to log them off!"

* * *

Kim, Bob, and Dot rounded the end of the pickup to see Wade's avatar kneeling next to Ron. "Glitch, scanner!" Bob commanded of his keytool. The box on his arm unfolded and a small, cog-like lens shined a yellow beam over Ron. "That's weird."

"In relation to what?" Dot asked skeptically. "We're helping Users as it is!"

"His power output is off the scale! All of Mainframe is going to overheat if he keeps this up." Bob said.

"It's not my fault!" Ron cried. "I didn't even try activating my powers!"

Wade turned to Malcolm, who was still sifting through technical manuals of the Mainframe system. "What are you using for cooling?" he asked.

"A stable liquid nitrogen containment vat. Why?" Malcolm replied.

"Start cycling it. Ron's over clocking your processors. We've got two minutes before it all melts down!" Wade ordered.

Kim looked down at her hands in wonderment. Ron claimed he hadn't activated his mystical abilities, but Kim recalled wanting to feel as close to him as she had when they had shared his body when his Monkey Powers had flared to life. "Kim!" Wade's avatar said, standing suddenly. "We can't deactivate Ron's powers, but we can keep them from affecting the system."

"Do it." Kim said, kneeling and taking Ron's face in her hands again. The crash of a nearby building collapsing suddenly sent dust and smoke down the street, surrounding everyone as Kim touched her face plate to Ron's. "Ron, I think something happened when I was in your body in Credible's lab."

"Uh, yeah..." Ron said, as though it was obvious. "We kicked alien warbot booty together!"

"No." Kim said, shaking her head. "I mean something between us." She slid her gloved hands down Ron's armored chest and took his hands. "When you shared your Monkey Powers with me." She couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed with Wade, Malcolm, Bob, and Dot watching, but after the last few years of being a celebrity hero with Ron as her boyfriend, she was getting used to it. "Ron, I need you to concentrate. You need to turn off the Monkey Powers."

"But I didn't..." Ron argued.

Suddenly, Bob snapped his fingers. "The Null!"

Everyone around him suddenly turned to look up at him in confusion. "Pardon?" Kim and Dot said in unison.

"It makes total sense! Nulls drain energy when they're around Sprites for too long. Ron's a battery of stored energy, so it only looks like he was unaffected by the Null! When actually, his energy was being constantly drained."

"It doesn't matter if you didn't activate them, Ron!" Kim shouted as another building collapsed around them and the ceiling of the Game Cube began to sink toward them. "You need to DE-activate them now!"

"Got it, Kim!" Wade suddenly shouted as Ron squeezed his eyes shut, concentrating on the notion of Kim being out of danger. Kim watched as the Game Cube walls began to straighten slowly and return to their normal purple and black color, then vanish into the city scape of the war-torn world.

"It's working, Wade!" Kim said with a smile and Ron's aura slowly faded as well. "Nice work, boys."

"We'd better log off, Kim. Let you get back to business. But this make shift cooling system isn't going to last long." Wade said. Malcolm's avatar vanished where it had been standing and Bob and Dot watched in shocked amazement. "Whatever you're going to do, you'll have to do it quick."

"Got it, Wade." Kim said as Wade's avatar vanished as well. A roll of thunder sounded and the city disappeared around them as the Game Cube rose into the sky, shedding the four Sprites of their armor and returning them to their usual uniforms. With no more face plates between them, Kim touched Ron's lips with hers and smiled. "That's nice."

* * *

"We're back Cecil!" Dot claimed as they entered the Diner. She paused as the view came to her. Chairs had been overturned, Cecil hung from his track on the ceiling, unconscious, and several Binomes throughout the Diner looked as though they had been tossed to the side and were carefully lifting themselves off of the floor and tables. Frisket laid on the floor, a stunner field surrounding him. "Enzo?!" Dot cried, searching the Diner for her brother in a panic. "What happened here?"

"Megabyte..." one of the Binomes said with a groan as Kim helped him to his feet. "Took Enzo and the Null..."

"Rufus?!" Ron shouted in renewed frustration.

Bob moved over to Frisket, stretching his arm out to the large red and yellow rottweiler. "Glitch, nullifier." The small rectangle fired a blue beam at the dog and the stun field shimmered and faded. A low groan came from beneath the dog and Frisket stood, growling at a dark blue Binome with a fluorescent green eye. He slowly slunk away from Frisket before backing into Bob, and looked up into the Guardian's angry eyes. "Where are they?" he asked, placing his hands on his hips as Kim, Ron, and Dot surrounded him. The viral Binome tried to speak, but could only stammer and pointed toward the far off island of Lost Angles. "A Virus kidnapping my friends in my System?" Bob said, glaring at Hexadecimal's lair in the Twin City.

"I don't think so." Kim finished for him.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

Megabyte watched with immense satisfaction as four Sprites sailed toward his position along the broken and twisted suspension bridge that linked Lost Angles to Mainframe. He promised himself that he would make use of all those unused sectors when he finally took control of this system. But first, he needed the Super Computer. "You'll never get away with this, Mega-breath!" Enzo shouted from his place along the edge of a well lit dais in Hexadecimal's lair, held in place by the red henchbot, Hack. Megabyte rolled his eyes and shook his head. Leave it to the irritating bit of a boy to ruin his crowning moment with a lack of wit.

Megabyte turned on the silver sphere that joined his robust blue and silver legs to his torso to glare at Enzo, who shrunk away slightly. Megabyte grinned, sensing the boy's fear. "And who's going to stop me this time, boy?" he asked. The room shook slightly with each step he took and he extended a gold blade from each of his four fingertips, placing them beneath Enzo's chin. "Your sister? The Guardian? Not this time." He waved his hand and a giant vid screen appeared, showing Hexadecimal floating amongst a hundred of Megabyte's black ABCs. "If they choose to fight, I can guarantee that either you or they will be deleted." he smiled, retracting his claws. "Either way, I get rid of one annoyance or another."

"You've never taken on two guardians before!" Enzo retorted. Rufus let out an affirmative squeak. He was encased in an energy sphere that was held in Slash's fingers, and was carefully surveying the empty room that they were in.

Megabyte chuckled evilly, crossing his arms over his massive chest. "While Bob has remained true to his format, we'll see if Guardian Kim can make a wiser choice."

* * *

Kim, Bob, Ron, and Dot came to a stop on their zip discs above the ocean that separated Lost Angles from the rest of Mainframe. In the sky above the ruined island were a cloud of black specks that surrounded a female figure in red with a torn black cape and a white drama mask. "That's a lot of tanks." Kim said aloud.

"So everyone knows the plan?" Dot asked, glaring at Bob and Ron specifically.

"No problem, Dot." Bob smiled back. "Ron will distract Hex. Kim and I will distract Megabyte, and you rescue Enzo and the Null. Simple as one zero one." He then turned to Ron, who was staring in surprise at the cloud of armored vehicles. "Now remember, Hex is a virtual battery of energy, can control nulls, and is about as random as they come. Try not to let her get too close."

Ron looked down at his hands. "You mention this now?" he complained with a frown. "What am I supposed to do, then?"

"Play to your strengths, Ron." Kim said. "I believe in you." She reached out to touch his chin, floating closer to place a quick kiss on his lips before falling away below the shore line of the island.

Ron sighed and smiled for a moment as he watched his three companions surf away on their zip disks before moving toward Hexadecimal and Megabyte's army.

Bob and Dot accelerated slightly to catch up to Kim, who didn't bother to look at either of them as they approached. "You really think he can take on all of them alone?" Bob asked.

"I've seen Ron take on ten foot tall aliens, an eighty foot tall cybertronic robot, and an army of life sustained androids designed specifically for global war." Kim replied, focusing on the spire in the center of Lost Angles.

Bob looked across at Dot, and frowned in uncertainty. "Kim..." Dot said, putting a hand on Kim's shoulder. "You didn't answer the question."

Kim turned to her, knowing the answer they were looking for was one that she couldn't give them. It wasn't that she didn't want to believe in Ron, but she had to stay focused on success, and she wasn't about to let a dream of the future, real or not, tell her that failure was inevitable. One of the ways that she and Ron differed was his lack of focus on a positive goal. He always over thought, hesitated, and let the fear of failure keep him from succeeding at so much in his life. If focusing on this dream of his helped him face those fears, then so be it. "I need him to believe he can." Kim said, continuing forward.

* * *

"Okay." Ron said to himself as he continued toward the fleet of floating tanks. "She can't be any tougher than the Yono, can she?" Of course, he had also had the Lotus Blade and Toshimiru at his side when he had fought the Yono himself. He pulled the tiny utility knife from his pants pocket. The Immersion Cap had scanned the Lotus Blade in the form that he kept it in and nothing more. No mystical powers. No shape shifting abilities. He sighed, looking ahead again and putting the utility knife away. The woman in red and black still hovered above the destroyed landscape, inspecting her fingernails while the army of tanks waited for him to come within range.

"Distraction." he said to himself. "Keep Hex distracted." Usually, this was his element, but from the bored expression on the woman's mask, this could be more difficult that he had thought. "Time to get your attention, lady." he said as the first shots from the ABCs began to whistle through the air. He set his jaw and closed his eyes as the sky around him began to swirl with red fog.

Hexadecimal hummed a short tune over and over again as she sharpened her claws. "One Sprite?" she asked herself. It was obvious that the three others were gone to save the Matrix boy, but she thought it would be amusing if Megabyte was surprised. She did so enjoy watching Bob and her greedy sibling squabble over such trivial things. The first of Megabyte's army began to fire their long range cannons and Hex continued sharpening the claws on her other hand. "What fun could I have with just one Sprite?" she asked herself before a glowing blue comet bowled her over in the air.

The ABCs cannon fire strafed the area in an attempt to keep up to Ron and Hexadecimal's mask changed to an expression of rage. Missiles exploded and cannon rounds deflected in every direction as a flickering white energy field surrounded Ron and Hexadecimal's struggle. With his zip disk destroyed in the impact, Ron was forcing Hex to the street below. He dodged a series of claw strikes that were seemingly made out of panic, and thrust a kick into Hexadecimal's midsection before somersaulting away and landing in a crouched, balanced stance a few feet away from the edge of the crater that Hex created as she struck the concrete, exploding the street and disappearing.

"Well, that wasn't so hard." Ron chuckled, his blue aura still shimmering on the dilapidated around him and contrasting against the red fog that continued to permeate the area. He jumped from side to side as the ABCs continued to fire their automatic cannons. The fleet of armor swept by, nearly colliding with the street before ascending and Ron leaped high, landing on the top hatch of one of the flying tanks. With one swing of his arm, the hatch was torn away and he grinned at the dark blue binomes that looked up at him in surprise. A shrill scream powerful enough to shatter the windows across the island and blow Ron's hair back rippled from the crater below him and Hexadecimal flew from the dark hole in the street with elongated claws and a mouth full of wicked teeth. "That's not good..."

* * *

Kim and Bob stepped toward the dais in the center of Hexadecimal's lair. Megabyte stood in the spotlight with his hands placed firmly on his hips and staring at the two intruders with an arrogant smile. "Ah, Bob... I see you brought your new friend with you as well. How delightful."

"It's over, Megabyte!" Bob announced, narrowing his eyes. "Released Enzo and the null. I can't be held responsible for what might happen if you don't."

From the shadows outside of the spotlight came Hack and Slash, each holding one of the prisoners. "Bob!" Enzo shouted. He was held immobilized in gold manacles of electricity and Hack covered the boy's mouth with a hand.

"Don't worry, Enzo." Bob assured the boy. "We'll get you out of there."

Megabyte shook his head, an amused smile spreading across his lips. "This can end one of three ways, Guardians..."

"I see only two. You can either give up freely, or I make you give up." Kim stated cooly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Megabyte let out a deep chuckle. "I will be more than happy to stand out of your way, Guardian." he said to Kim, blatantly ignoring Bob. "You need only give me a portal to the Super Computer!" he grinned, clenching a large metallic fist to emphasis his point.

"You don't even have a tear, Megabyte." Bob retorted. "We couldn't open a portal here if we wanted to."

Megabyte grinned. "Not yet..."

Bob's eyes widened as a series of vid windows opened around the dais, displaying the battle going on around Hexadecimal's lair. "If either Ron or Hex are destroyed, it'll cause a tear not even I could mend! It's all a setup!"

"The choice is yours, Guardians! You can save your pathetic system from imminent annihilation by containing Hexadecimal, sacrificing your friends here..." Megabyte said, gesturing to Enzo and Rufus. "Or you can save the boy, sacrificing Mainframe in the inevitable destruction of one of those two combatants!" he continued, pointing at the vidscreens.

"Or?" Kim and Bob asked together.

"Or I can stop either from happening if you give me what I want!" Megabyte answered. "I may even be so inclined as to invite Hex along, ridding you of all your troubles."

"We can't let either of them into the Net." Bob whispered to Kim.

"Is Dot in position?" Kim replied under her breath. Bob nodded slightly, not taking his eyes off of Megabyte. Kim smiled at the eight foot tall mechanized being. "We going to go with option dee."

Megabyte sighed. "Very well." he stated, extending a set of four long, gold claws from each hand. "This will at least be far more enjoyable. For me, at least."

"Rufus! Escape procedures!" Kim shouted as Megabyte bared three rows of shark-like teeth in a predatory growl. Rufus began slithering forward, rotating the ball in Slash's hands at an ever increasing speed until the robot's fingertips began to glow purple, then red with heat.

"Ow!" Slash shouted, dropping the energy ball encasing Rufus and waving his hands in the air to cool them. Rufus shifted his weight as the ball struck the floor and bounced to the side, then off of Hack's domed head.

"Ow!" Hack yelped, releasing Enzo in an attempt to catch Rufus on the rebound before the pink null rolled away. "Quick! Get them!"

"Wait, what's that sound?" Slash asked as a soft whistle rang through the air above them. As each henchbot stared up at the ceiling, the shadow of a massive girder widened they eyes. "Uh..."

"Oh!" Hack finished as they were both crushed beneath the beam.

"Dot!" Enzo shouted as his older sister dropped from the ceiling and onto the floor beside him.

Megabyte spun, eyeing each of his adversaries carefully. "Who's trapped now?" Dot asked as Kim and Bob surrounded the Virus.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

"This is everyone's favorite appliance, Mike the TV, coming to you LIVE from Lost Angles!" exclaimed a yellow television set with a set of arms and legs as he stood outside of Hexadecimal's Lair. The Binome camera man turned his attention from Mike to a pair of figures that were battling in the sky in amongst a fleet of black hovering tanks. "The new Sprites from beyond our system battle for our very LIVES!" Mike continued. "Let's hope they at least give us all a good show." he smiled. "But first, we take you into the heart of all evil: Hexadecimal's Lair! Where Guardian Bob and Guardian Kim battle the evil Megabyte. Four heroes went in, but only one Sprite may come out! Stay Tuned!"

* * *

Megabyte growled, driving the claws that extended from each of his fingers into the floor of Hexadecimal's lair as Kim performed a backflip to evade his strike. He was nearly the size of Warhok, but made of steel and from Bob had told her, had nearly limitless strength. The floor cracked where his claws had pierced and Megabyte pulled his hand free. "Dot, get Enzo out of here!" Bob shouted. A glowing gold blade extended from his keytool as he leaped up to bring it down on the virus. Three long blades grew out from the back of Megabyte's other hand and he parried Bob's attack, resulting in a shower of sparks.

Bob landed on his feet, rolling forward and Megabyte slashed at him with his claws, tearing three neat gouges in his armor. "You've outlived your usefulness, Guardian." Megabyte said calmly, turning to lift the steel girder off of Hack and Slash. "Since it only takes one of you to release me from this pitiful system." The evil snicker that emanated from him rivaled even Senor Senior Senior's and he narrowed his eyes at Bob. The Guardian struggled to lift himself and groaned.

Kim surveyed the area. The Kimmunicator wasn't a keytool. Not like Glitch. Once again, she was fighting helplessly against a superior being that was threatening to destroy her new friends. Only this time, Ron wasn't here to stop him. Finally, as Megabyte began to swing the forty foot long steel girder over his head to crush Bob, Kim grit her teeth and made the decision that she wasn't helpless. Now, or when the Lorwardians had invaded. With a series of hand springs, Kim used her momentum to leap onto the end of the girder as it rose, her weight adding practically nothing to the girder's. As the girder lifted, she took aim with her grapple and fired. A thing glowing beam shot out and attached itself to the ceiling of the lair, and Kim wedged the grip inside of the crevices of the steel beam as it reached its apex.

"Bob!" Dot shouted. Megabyte grinned as Dot raced up next to Bob in an attempt to pull him away. But the downward momentum would crush them both and Megabyte growled in victory until the girder stopped dropping at a sixty degree angle. Confused, the virus looked up the length of the girder to see Kim sliding down.

Kim planted both feet on Megabyte's face, knocking him away from the girder. As she landed, Kim laid flat and the length of steel swung over her head like a pendulum hanging by her grapple line, and striking Megabyte full force in the chest, imbedding him in the wall. "And that, as they say, was for the win." Kim grinned.

* * *

Ron was trying desperately to hold onto the Armored Binome Carrier as Hexadecimal swiped at him with her claws, laughing maniacally. "Come out, come out!" she called, standing atop the ABC as Ron crawled underneath. "There will be cake!"

The ABC continued to swerve and bank in an effort to remove Ron and Hexadecimal, but Ron flattened his hands and drove them into the armor plating of the vehicle. Gritting his teeth, he anchored himself in midair and spun, wielding the ABC itself as its engines strained against his grip. Hexadecimal watching in fascination, her mask taking on a surprised look with a gaping mouth and glowing green eyes. The ABC had suddenly taken on a bright blue glow before it collided with her, sending her spinning.

Ron let the ABC fall from his hands and it dropped to the street below, bouncing and rolling as he fell slowly behind it, glaring up at his opponent. Hexadecimal came to a stop in mid flight with the remainder of Megabyte's armored fleet taking a position behind her. The mask that covered her face now had red, piercing eyes and a raised eyebrow with a playful smirk engraved in her lips. She wagged her finger at Ron. "Two can play with those toys." she laughed. Hexadecimal pointed a clawed finger at one of the ABC's located behind her, then pointed back at Ron. Instantly, the ABC launched forward, spinning end over end on a collision course.

His eyes widening, Ron shouted in surprise as he leaped out of the way of the incoming tank that crashed into the street. Hexadecimal continued throwing ABCs with a wave of her hands as the fleet began to scatter in panic. Ron sidestepped as the next tank crashed into the street next to him and he launched into the air to land and leap off of the next one in a series of jumps that took him toward his target. He tucked himself into a flip as he rose, then clenched his hands into fists of blazing blue energy, preparing to strike. Hexadecimal was staring up at him with an amused smile chiseled on her mask.

He came to a sudden stop as the virus reached out a hand in a gesture to grab Ron by the neck. Ron let out a surprised squawk as he hovered more than a foot away from Hexadecimal, yet the pressure he felt around his throat was very real. "My dear boy, what made you think you were any match for me?" she laughed. "I'll admit that you've been keeping me entertained for a few fleeting moments, but I'm beginning to become bored."

Ron tried to speak as he struggled against her invisible grip. He tried to concentrate, calling more on his mystical powers that he had in a long time. "Actually..." he strained to say. "I'm just the distraction." His aura flared brighter and a ruined building nearby broke apart into pieces, but continued to hover as though held in place by a transparent mold.

Hexadecimal cackled. "Your flame haired Guardian is no match for me or Megabyte." she said with a bored look. Another building seemed to break apart and the twisted tendrils of Hexadecimal's Lair began to snap off and orbit the tower. The virus turned away to look, then glared back at Ron in surprise as his aura flared brighter. "What are you doing?!" she shouted. "You're more interesting than I thought..."

Ron was quickly losing air, but he grinned as best as he could when he thought of Kim. "She's not a Guardian." he coughed. "She's a User. We both are."

"Impossible!" Hexadecimal stated. The streets below them began to fracture and twist as Ron continued to glow brighter still. Geysers erupted from beneath the pavement, sending rainbows of light into the sky.

"She gets that a lot." he replied. He tried kicking at the insane woman, but he continued to hover just out of reach. Hexadecimal's mask took on a look of hate, with a fang filled maw and glowing red eyes, and she began to squeeze harder, causing Ron's vision to go black. "You're going to save everyone..." he rasped.

"What?!" Hexadecimal shouted in reply. Ron tried speaking again, straining against her grip, but no words were coming. His aura flared once more and Hexadecimal's Lair began to crumble before the light around him faded. Hex released him, catching him by the wrist before he fell. She pulled him close and glared into Ron's weary eyes. "What did you say?!"

Ron lifted his head, smiling faintly. "I saw it. You're going to save the whole Net."

Hexadecimal looked away, touching her chin with a claw in thought before looking back with a smirk on her mask. She touched Ron's nose with a claw. "You are interesting..." she said. Then her mask took on a frown and sad eyes. "But a fool! I'm a virus. Why would I help anyone?"

"Same reason I do." he chuckled lightly. "For love. Or just a crazy random happenstance."

"Love?" Hexadecimal asked. "For Bob?" She looked down at her lair that was continuing to crumble.

"Kim and I need to go. I think I'm destroying the city." Ron said in a raspy voice. Even without his aura flaring, Lost Angles was continuing to fall apart and flames were beginning to ignite in several of the dilapidated buildings that were still standing.

"Then away you will go." Hexadecimal said. With a scream of agony, Ron began to evaporate into light, starting at his feet and ending with the hand that Hexadecimal was holding onto.

* * *

"You two okay?" Kim asked, helping Dot pull Bob to his feet. She shot a passing glance back at the virus still embedded in the far wall, being careful to avoid the still swinging girder.

"Yeah." Bob said with a grunt. "Thanks. I guess we were wrong about..." he began. Suddenly, the Lair began to shake and rumble with pieces of the ceiling and walls dropping around them. Kim dropped into a crouch to lower her center of gravity and keep her balance. Bob grabbed onto Dot, pushing her toward Kim as a large slab of steel dropped between them from the ceiling.

After a few moments, the dust from the collapse had settled, although the Lair continued to shake and stir. Kim coughed and waved the dust out from in front of her so she could see. "Dot? You see Bob?" she asked, extending an arm out into the fog. To her surprise, a massive blue arm reached back out to her and Megabyte pinned her against the wall with one arm. Reflexively, Kim grabbed his massive forearm to try to lift herself up, and kicked out, striking his oversized chin several times with a series of dull pings until her toes began to hurt. Her neck was caught between his thumb and forefinger and his finger claws were keeping her from moving despite her struggling.

"Now Ms. Possible." Megabyte began when she had quit kicking him. "I'm sure we can come to some sort of deal." he said calmly, inspecting the claws on his other hand casually. "The destruction your companion has wrought outside these walls have undoubtedly created a great many tears that you have the ability to turn into portals." he informed her, turning to glare into her eyes. "You will do this for me, or you will be deleted."

"Go to Vista." Kim replied, eyeing the controls on her wrist Kimmunicator.

Megabyte shook his head, pushing his claws deeper into the wall that Kim was pinned to. "Such hostility for a higher power." Kim's eyes widened, and Megabyte chuckled evilly. "Oh yes, Ms. Possible. I'm quite aware of what you are and where you're from. Do you not recognize the handiwork of your arch foe?" he asked, gesturing to himself. "My format is to infect the Super Computer, and amass a foot hold in the Net for Doctor Drakken. My Maker."

"Nice to know you've got a lot in common." Kim said. "Like failure." With a swift motion, Kim let go of his forearm and winced against the sudden strain on her jaw, clicking a button on her Kimmunicator. A slight buzzing sound came from the device and Megabyte's eyes grew wide as his armored plating began to flicker. The Kimmunicator literally leaped from Kim's wrist to Megabyte's forehead and he stumbled back, letting Kim drop to the floor. "Let's see if a super magnet will give you a new format." she growled, rubbing her throat.

Megabyte's glowing green eyes rolled back in his head and the massive steel being fell back, dropping to the floor with a shout of agony. Kim stood, a satisfied smile creeping over her face before a flash of light erupted between her and Megabyte. A tall woman in red leather with a torn black cape and a white drama mask appeared, and lashed out with a clawed hand, grabbing Kim by the wrist. "Time to join your lover!" Hexadecimal shouted, a playful smile on her mask.

"Hey!" Kim shouted, grabbing Hexadecimal's wrist with her free hand. "I've had it with you viruses and tossing me around!" she continued. Before she could attack, however, her feet began to dissolve into light that streamed up through the cracks in the Lair. "Wait, what are you do-o-o-o-i-i-i-n-n?!" she screamed, her voice diminishing into an electronic reverberation.

Dot lifted her head to see Kim vanish in Hexadecimal's hands. "What did you do to her?" she shouted. The movement of one of the fallen slabs from the ceiling caught her eye, and Dot turned to watch as it glowed gold, then shattered as Bob stepped through.

"What'd I miss?" he asked, a cocky smile plastered onto his face. Catching sight of Hexadecimal, Bob moved over to Dot and helped her up, trying to remain alert for any movement the virus made. "Looks like quite a bit." he added, nodding to Megabyte, who remained on the floor flickering and twitching.

"She... deleted Kim." Dot whispered to him.

"I didn't delete them." Hexadecimal said, almost sadly. "I sent them home." she continued. "Now where's that Null?" she asked, snapping her fingers.

* * *

Ron opened his eyes a fraction of a second before Kim did, and the first thing he noticed was Kim's hand still clasped over his. Then the rest of the room came into focus as the Immersion Cap rose above his head. "Kim? What happened?"

Kim brought her hands up to her face. They were real. Her clothes were real again, and so were her surroundings. "I'm not sure. I thought I was... being deleted. I had just knocked down Mega-whatever and that lady in red warped in and started dissolving me."

"What are you guys doing out of the system?" Wade asked, looking surprised as he turned around in his seat. Malcolm too, was staring at them from beside Wade. "We just finished talking to you in the game..."

Kim stood from her seat, and immediately put her hand out to steady herself. She was severely disoriented from coming out of the Full Immersion system, and had to swallow slowly before speaking. "Shut it down. Shut it all down! One of those viruses was made by Drakken."

"Too late, Kim." Malcolm said with a frown. "The system's crashing."

Ron lifted Rufus and stuffed him into his pocket as the naked mole rat shook his head. "But what happened to Bob? And Dot? And..." he asked.

"Whatever was happening when you guys were logged out has long since passed by now." Wade explained. "I can't even venture a guess as to what's going on now with the system crashing."

The group looked around the room as the high pitched hum of the multitude of computer banks powered down. Even the lights flickered momentarily as the monitors in the lab faded to black. Kim and the others waited momentarily for the computer monitor to come back online until finally green text appeared on the black screen. "Isn't that..." Kim asked, pointing to the flashing green square on the monitor.

"Basic?" Malcolm asked. "Yeah. Without our Full Immersion OS supporting everything, it defaults back to DOS." he said frowning.

'_SYSTEM CRASH..._'

'_RESTART Y/N_?'

Wade shrugged as everyone watched over his shoulder and slowly, he typed in _'YES'_. The green square flashed for a few more times before another question was posed.

'_RESTORE Y/N?'_

Again, Wade leaned forward and typed in his answer, completing the command with a tap of the Enter key_._ "I hope that works." he said softly. Within moments, a whirring sound started emanating from the banks of computer systems that lined the room and indicator lights flickered, signaling that Mainframe was rebooting.

"Is it working?" Kim asked. As little as she had intended to grow attached to the people she had met in the system; Bob, Dot, and even Enzo and Phong seemed real enough to be, well, real.

Malcolm was running from CPU to CPU, checking readings and statistics. "It's working." he said in surprise. "It's working!" he laughed. He ran over to where Wade had been sitting and nearly pushed him out of the way as he shouldered in to begin tapping on the keyboard. "And... virus free..." he said, his voice becoming soft. "You did it, Kim." he said, turning to look at the red haired hero.

Kim looked over at Ron and embraced him in a hug. "We did it." she smiled as Rufus climbed up onto Ron's shoulder, hugging them both as well as he could.


	10. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Kim and Ron stepped into their apartment, bleary eyed and dragging their feet. Though they had only been under the Immersion caps for less than a half hour, it had been nearly a day to them of constant running and battles. Ron unconsciously fished the already sleeping Rufus out of his pants packet and set him in his bed beside the couch before Ron toppled over the side of the sofa himself. Kim yawned and stretched, dropping her pack on the floor beside the front door. She stared longingly at Ron for a moment, hearing his muffled, tired groans from the couch cushions.

Their adventure into Malcolm's computer system had left them both drained, and tomorrow waited with both college, and work. Kim frowned as Ron picked himself up to a sitting position, lazily grabbing his Z-Boy controller off of the floor and turning the console on. After all they had just been through, he still didn't seem to want to talk about anything. "I'm going to bed..." she said softly, pausing for his reply.

"Okay, KP." he said absently, waiting for his Mako 3 game to start. "I'll see ya in the morning, then."

Kim's shoulders slumped, but she took a breath that sent an imperceptible shudder through her chest. Instead of saying anything more, she made her way to the bathroom to get ready for bed. She showered, smeared moisturizer over her face in a thick green paste, and brushed her teeth with a complete lack of enthusiasm.

She was washing her face clean while thinking of how her and Ron's worries were differing in their relationship. She had been burying herself in a guilt over all the things she had said and done to Ron while she was evil, and he had come to believe so much in this dream he'd had about their future. A future that ends when he dies this year.

Kim didn't want to believe it could happen, but there was something about Ron's enthusiasm that had always been contagious and the moment that he had been frozen by Captain Capacitor's crew, she was ready to do anything to make them bring him back.

The memory of holding the binome at sword point sent a shiver through her, and she wiped her cheeks and sniffed, taking a deep breath before opening the bathroom door. The lights were off now, and there was no sound coming from the living room where she had left Ron to play his game. Deciding that he must have gone to sleep, Kim let out a quiet sigh and opened the door to the bedroom to find Ron sitting on the end of the bed, looking down at the floor. "KP, can we talk?" he asked, looking up and into her eyes.

Suddenly; college, work, and saving the world were the furthest things from Kim's mind and she sat down beside Ron, a new smile spreading across her face. "Absolutely."

* * *

It was the next evening and Ron found himself stocking shelves once again at the Smarty Mart where he'd been working since starting college. Despite the soreness in his limbs and the complete lack of sleep from the night before, Ron was doing his job with renewed vigor. He and Kim had gotten a lot out last night and wound up drifting off to sleep just as the alarm rang on the Kimmunicator.

He finally understood where Kim's undying confidence in herself came from and why she struggled with the concept that she would, or even _could_ fail to protect him in the future. She had also convinced him that putting distance between them now would be just as bad as losing each other later.

"_Come whatever, Ron; I wouldn't give up the time we have now for anything. Future or no future."_ Kim had said with one of the most sincerest smiles that he had ever seen.

While he had caught even less of his classes, and slipped up several times in football practice due to daydreaming, there had been a much missed goofy grin on his face throughout the day.

He had just finished setting the last bag of pet food on the shelf and pulled out a 'Jimmy Ding the Bling Bling King' catalogue when Rufus caught his attention with a series of chirps and a smack on his cheek."What?" he asked with a tired whine. Ron turned to see Francis Lurman, his new supervisor that had taken his position when Ron had gone to save Kim in Miami. He hid the catalogue back in his pocket and folded his arms over his chest, grumbling. "Well, it was a good day..." he whispered to Rufus.

"Ron! Ya gotta help me!" Francis shouted, placing his hands on Ron's shoulders and pushing him toward the cashiers stations at the front of the store.

"Lurman, you already took my job. What else do you want from me?" Ron asked in irritation.

"You remember that virus I had imbedded in the bar code of that can of Vienna Sausages?" Francis asked hesitantly.

Ron put up a hand. "Dude, don't even talk to me about computers."

Francis spun Ron around and grabbed him by his Smarty smock, shouting into his face. "You don't understand! If Daemon gets onto the Net, it'll infect everything! Shut down the whole enchilada!"

"Daemon? Who's Daemon?" Ron asked. "And don't worry. Kim and I got rid of that expired can of sausages years ago!" he assured the older man, batting away his hands and straightening his smock.

Francis was sweating heavily now, and he leaned in close. Slowly, he painted to the set of cash registers and directed Ron's gaze to a crowd of irate customers and disheveled cashiers. "See?!"

"What?" Ron asked, looking where Francis was pointing. "I'm not seeing..."

"The readout!" Francis whispered.

Ron squinted, but without his glasses, the numbers only seemed fuzzy. "Okay, I've really got to get Wade to make another set of specs cuz I'm not seein' nothin'."

"It's counting down!" Francis shouted, attracting the attention of the various employees and customers. "Daemon is programmed to infect every system, then crash them all at once!"

"Every system?" Ron asked, squinting at the readout above the register again. Though blurry, the readout was an unmistakable zero. The cash registers turned back on, several terminals around the store rebooted and ultimately...

Nothing happened.

"She did it." Ron said, a grin forming on his face. He slapped Francis on the back. "She really did it!" he laughed.

Francis Lurman squinted at the register, then back at Ron as the blond man walked away. "Whu? What... who did what?"

Ron smiled back at him. "Hexadecimal just saved the world. Crisis averted." he said, pulling the jewelry catalogue out of his pocket again.

"Crisis?" Francis asked in confusion. "And who's Hex..." He looked back at the crowd at the front of the store that was finally beginning to move through the cashier stations, all the registers working perfectly again. "Wow! You are good, Ron Stoppable!" he shouted, chasing after Ron down the aisle. Immediately, he spied Jimmy Ding's catalogue. "Oh, getting a rock for the lady friend? Two words, Stoppable! Cubic Zirconia!"


End file.
